


The Ninth Princess

by assignedginger



Category: Fairytales for Wilde Girls - Allyse Near, The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, DTTM in general, Death to the Mechanisms Spoilers, Desertion, Dragons, Fairytales For Wilde Girls AU, Gen, Manipulation, No Beta We Die Like The Mechs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:56:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26813995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assignedginger/pseuds/assignedginger
Summary: In which Nastya Rasputina is kidnapped by a horde of dragons, and her Princes fail to save her.
Kudos: 14





	The Ninth Princess

Once upon a time, in the Kingdom Aurora, their Princess was kidnapped by dragons. Snatched from the balcony of her tower as her siblings watched on in horror. Her parents wanted to send their best knights, so they might try and retrieve her and slay the dragons. But her Eldest brother, Jonny, stepped forward to give his word.

“Your majesty, if I may. It was I who let her be captured, I couldn’t hold on long enough and she slipped from my grasp. So I would like to be the one who brings her back.” He bowed his head. Jonny was known for his bravery, and he was willing to put himself in danger for the safety of his sister.

“But you will not be alone.” He turned to see his siblings, all nodding in agreement. The second eldest brother, Marius, spoke again. “We will go with you, and retrieve our Kingdom’s heart.”

Marius was known for his devotion, Ashes for their charity, Tim for his kind heart, Brian for his calm head, Ivy for her knowledge, Raphaella for her trustworthiness and Toy for its talkative nature. Together, the King agreed they were stronger than any dragon. So they were sent off to find their Nastya, and to bring her back to them.

But the dragons heard of this, and through their jade-pointed teeth devised a plan. They could each lure these precious ‘Princes’ away and defeat them. Then they would use the Princess to gather all the Kingdom’s gold, even until there was nothing left, not even the golden rays of the sun.

The first Dragon was Silence. It came through the night and waited until each Prince was asleep except for the Toy Soldier, who was singing its songs by the firelight as its siblings slept. It whispered to it, and the Toy Soldier, intrigued by the song coming from through the trees, left the safety of the camp.

In the dark bushes, the Dragon’s words wrapped around the Toy Soldier’s throat like vines, reminding it how it was never alive anyway. It should just stop pretending, then the Princes would have less weight on their backs and they could easier reach the Princess. The Toy Soldier began stilling under the Dragon’s manipulation until its body creaked to a still and its sweet voice never sang another song.

The second Dragon was Treachery. While they walked towards the Dragon’s keep, Raphaella kept thinking of her sister, and how she missed her more as they got closer and closer to the end. The Dragon waited until she went to the river to refill her canteen. “I am not like the others,” it promised, urging her to come with it and let it help her take down the other dragons. “I do not wish to hurt the Princess.”

So Raphaella took its scaled hand, and let herself be led off into the sky. She trusted that Dragon the whole time, up until the air was being pushed from her lungs as she fell from its back. The ground quickly came towards her, and Raphaella never gave her trust to another.

The third Dragon was Curiosity. It came to the Princes when they got lost in a maze of twisting trees and spiral branches. Ivy had willingly gone off on her own, knowing the right path from stories of knights. The Dragon’s voice echoed all around her, whispering of secrets and information only it knew, coaxing her closer and closer.

The fog around her became like smoke, making it harder and harder to breathe as she searched for wherever the voices came from, spinning in every direction. Then she walked right where the Dragon was waiting, and a rumbling inside its throat sealed her fate. She burned in that forest, and never learned anything more.

The fourth Dragon was Anger. With the loss of their siblings, the Princes began to argue over whether they should turn back or not. The Dragon watched from afar as Brian, who always stayed calm and mediated situations, walked away to give himself a break from his siblings’ arguments. It waited until he was far enough away, and then it pounced.

With his siblings yelling and arguing amongst themselves, their yelling masked the sounds of his cries for help. Eventually, he stopped struggling and realised his fate, succumbing to the Dragon’s clutches. His tender heart was finally broken, and he would never settle another argument.

The fifth Dragon was Cruelty. Tim had always been the kindest of the Princes, the most willing to help when one was hurt or offer reassurance when their resolve began to falter. He was walking behind his siblings, making sure they kept their pace. But he heard the Dragon’s cries from a field off to the side and saw it nursing what looked like a hurt leg.

His kind heart made him show sympathy for the Dragon, not wanting to see a creature in pain even if it was such a horrible one. As he crashed through the shrubbery and ran to its side to help, its wings curled closed around him, and no creature ever saw his kind eyes.

The sixth Dragon was Greed. All that remained were the three Princes, and Ashes had been urging their brothers to eat more than they did, giving up parts of their rations so that their older brothers could continue the quest with all the strength they had at the beginning of their long journey.

But they grew hungry, and the Dragon noticed this. So it came to them while they foraged for edible plants, and offered a path for them to take, saying there was food enough for all of them. Ashes did not fall to this Dragon as easily and instead took the path to lead the Dragon away from their brothers. As the foliage blocked out all of the sun’s light and they felt the fire begin to burn their skin, they wished for their brother’s safety. Ashes burned, and they never did a good deed again.

The seventh Dragon was Hatred. Marius had been so devoted to the quest, always urging the other onwards to find their Princess no matter how many of their siblings fell. Now there only remained him and Jonny, and his passion was proving to be his flaw. He wanted to take a different route, though dangerous creatures were known to lurk there.

Jonny disagreed, saying if they strayed from the path they would surely be done for, like all of their siblings. But Marius followed his heart, and the Dragon’s jaws were waiting. He didn’t even have the time to scream, as they snapped shut with him inside. He was swallowed whole, and he never loved another in this world.

The eighth Dragon was Desertion. Now only Jonny remained, the eldest of the Princes. He’d watched all his siblings fall to the Dragons, but he still went ahead, not wanting to leave their Princess to the same grisly fates they had suffered. But his willpower was faltering, and with each step closer fear gripped his heart tighter and tighter.

The Dragon came to him when he lay by the fire, unable to sleep. It urged him to give up on his quest, it was pointless and all his siblings were dead because of him wanting to find their Princess himself instead of sending knights. His resolve broke and he urged the Dragon to reunite him with his siblings, and as the Dragon’s long claw pierced his heart, he apologised to Nastya. He left the world with a smile on his face, and he never rescued another Princess.

With the last of her Princes gone, Nastya felt the cold walls of the Dragon’s lair pressing in around her with the last Dragon who watched over her. Loneliness. It ate at her like rot, and as she watched her siblings’ bones pile up, charred and picked clean, she began to lose hope. There was none left to rescue her, and she wanted to succumb to the Dragon and put the burden off her Kingdom’s back.

But as she cried for the loss of her family, she could feel a warmth within her. Hear her sibling’s voices telling her she was not alone, that even in death they would protect her from harm. She turned to face the dragon, who sneered at her from high above. “Trying to defeat me? With what army. You are all alone, my Princess.”

“But I am not. I am all of my siblings and I am more. I have a piece of all my siblings, I may not have been known for my kindness, or my charity, but they died protecting me and for that, I will avenge them.” 

She used the twine from her clothes to tie together the pieces of her siblings, bone fragments and a wooden handle coming together in a sword made from their love. She felt the presence of her siblings, urging her on and supporting her. Loneliness laughed, opening its mouth to taunt her once more but she leapt forward, remembering her Princes and the sacrifices they made for her.

The Dragon tried to burn her, but her sword caught in its throat. She fell back, blood as dark as the smoke that filled her nostrils spilling from its mouth. She watched as it convulsed, trying to fight back until it stopped, and she felt the presence of her siblings fade. She was alone, and there was only one place left to go. Out.

So she took the sword made from Aurora’s Princes and left the Dragon’s lair. No one knows where she went, perhaps she went home and reunited with her parents, or succumbed to Loneliness at last. But some say she floats from place to place, avenging those who need it and slaying Dragons with the force of those who sacrificed themselves for her.

Legend says if you see her at the right time of day, you can see the shadows of eight ghostly figures following her as she runs on her own quest, urging her on with all of their love. 

And she lived happily ever after, for the most part.  
The End.


End file.
